Photo: Mwanner · CC BY-SA 3.0Lake Placid’s library logs 5.5 visits per resident, against a typical 3 for libraries its size
Lake Placid Public Library serves 6,090 people in and around Lake Placid. Last year it lent 20K books, movies and e-books and logged 33K visits.
What stands out about Lake Placid Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Lake Placid’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Lake Placid is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns. Lake Placid is graded on two of the three inputs. Lake Placid’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Civic life counts registered nonprofits, library visits and online volunteering groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors looking out for each other.
Library visits: IMLS Public Libraries Survey, FY2024. Nonprofits: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, October 2026. Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. How TownRatings grades civic life →
27 community nonprofits are registered in Lake Placid
11.7 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
Community nonprofits, by kind
Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (5 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town. 2 more name a national or statewide reach and are left out.
6.2%
6.2% of Lake Placid’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 7.4% in the typical New York town and 7.5% nationally.
Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. ZIP-code figures, weighted by where Lake Placid’s residents live; 2022.
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 4 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people across the U.S.
Lake Placid Public Library serves 6,090 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 8 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Lake Placid Public Library system. The library’s own count.
More than half the print loans are kids’ books
20K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
3,162 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 2 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
Find it
Lake Placid Public Library, 2471 Main Street, Lake Placid.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Lake Placid Public Library branch.
New in Lake Placid? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $1.07 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Lake Placid cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $307K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $328K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $307K budget.
Fine-free. No late fees on books returned late.
Retail prices are typical, rounded down: a new book $17, a kids’ book $12, an e-book or e-audiobook $15, a movie rental $4, a class or program $10, a computer or Wi-Fi session $3. The average cardholder’s month = the library’s yearly loans, attendance and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ its 1,375 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Lake Placid Public Library serves 6,090 people in and around Lake Placid, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Lake Placid.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average; libraries are compared with others serving about as many people. How TownRatings uses library figures →
Questions about the library and civic life in Lake Placid
Does Lake Placid have a public library?
Yes. Lake Placid Public Library, 2471 Main Street, serves 6,090 people in and around Lake Placid (the survey’s count) and is open about 49 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Lake Placid Public Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks and research databases with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Lake Placid’s library?
It logged 5.5 visits and lent 3.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3 visits for libraries serving 2,500 to 10,000 people.
What is Lake Placid’s civic life grade?
B+ Lake Placid is ahead of 71% of U.S. towns on civic life. The grade combines library visits per resident, community nonprofits per 1,000 residents and the share of adults 25–44 in volunteering groups. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Lake Placid.
Libraries: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024. Each library reports its own numbers. Distances are straight-line from the town center. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.